The Noctes Ambrosianae, a series of 71 imaginary colloquies, appeared in Blackwood's Magazine

Blackwood's Magazine

Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn...

from 1822 to 1835. The earlier ones had several different authors, including John Gibson Lockhart

John Gibson Lockhart

John Gibson Lockhart , was a Scottish writer and editor. He is best known as the author of the definitive "Life" of Sir Walter Scott...

, William Maginn

William Maginn

William Maginn , journalist and miscellaneous writer, born at Cork, became a contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, and after moving to London in 1824 became for a few months in 1826 the Paris correspondent to The Representative, a paper started by John Murray, the publisher...

, James Hogg

James Hogg

James Hogg was a Scottish poet and novelist who wrote in both Scots and English.-Early life:James Hogg was born in a small farm near Ettrick, Scotland in 1770 and was baptized there on 9 December, his actual date of birth having never been recorded...

 and Professor John Wilson

John Wilson (Scottish writer)

John Wilson of Ellerey FRSE was a Scottish advocate, literary critic and author, the writer most frequently identified with the pseudonym Christopher North of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine....

, but from 1825, with the 19th in the series, the contributions by Wilson predominate, and he eventually wrote all or most of 39 of the dialogues, as well as parts of some others. The scene is usually set in Ambrose's Tavern in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, and the central characters are "Christopher North" (Wilson himself), "Timothy Tickler" (based on Robert Sym, 1750-1840, previously a Writer to the Signet), and the "Ettrick Shepherd" (based on James Hogg). Several other characters, imaginary or based on real people, including the "English Opium Eater" (Thomas de Quincey

Thomas de Quincey

Thomas Penson de Quincey was an English esssayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater .-Child and student:...

) occur in some episodes. The series is particularly noted for the expressive Scots dialogue

Scots language

Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...

of the Ettrick Shepherd.